On Idiom Parts and their Contexts

Jan-Philipp Soehn (Tübingen)

Abstract

This article examines idiomatic expressions as sources of both regularity and
irregularity in language. Some morphological, lexical, syntactical, and semantical
characteristics of idioms are discussed. It is shown how a lexical licensing
mechanism, which is formulated within a formal grammar framework, can deal with
the data. After that, this proposal is extended to the phenomenon of negative
polarity.